This project will prepare thin polyacrylamide gels for DNA sequencing, substituting plastic film for glass plates as the supporting material. This will allow preparation of ready-to-use gels, and form the basis of a useful manufacturing process. Also eliminated will be manual preparation of gels for DNA sequencing, a time-consuming and tedious step. Several approaches will be used to ensure complete gel polymerization on polyester films. The ultimate goal, following Phase I, is to design and construct a system to manufacture pre-cast gels.